The Human Rights Commission has filed a mixed report card to the United Nations on New Zealand’s commitment to indigenous rights. Addressing a UN expert group in Geneva the commission’s Kaitahutahu Rangatahi, Waimihia Maniapoto-Love said there have been periods of good progress towards tino rangatiratanga alongside periods of inactivity. The Government, the National Iwi Chairs Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Human rights’
Human Rights Commission gives NZ mixed report card on indigenous rights at United Nations
Thursday, July 27th, 2023Do priests have a right to privacy?
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
The Washington Post detailed last March how a group of Catholic conservatives in the United States spent millions of dollars de-anonymizing mountains of data to identify priests who were using phone apps that facilitate sexual hook-ups, like Grindr and Tinder. The most public of the targets was Msgr Jeffrey Burrill, who was general secretary for Read more
NZ omitted from Oceania Catholic climate crisis conference
Monday, November 21st, 2022
The New Zealand Catholic Church is not on the expert speaking list at an Oceania Catholic climate crisis meeting. A world first, the conference is driven by the Australian Catholic University with support from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. New Zealanders, however, are still invited to register and listen in over Zoom. Read more
Papuan solidarity group criticises NZ for ‘weak’ concern over Indonesian human rights abuses
Monday, November 21st, 2022The solidarity group West Papua Action Aotearoa has criticised New Zealand for not “being stronger” over growing global concern about Indonesian human rights violations in West Papua, and contrasted this with Vanuatu’s leadership. The group was reacting to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review into Indonesia report in Geneva last week. “Eight countries Read more
Four days in Bahrain – papal visit highlights
Monday, November 7th, 2022
The Pope’s 39th Apostolic Journey was to Bahrain last week. It was his first visit to Bahrain and second to the Gulf. He was aiming to further solidify his outreach to the Muslim community and to offer support to Bahrain’s small Christian minority. Pope Francis and the King Francis’s first official engagement was a courtesy Read more
Disabled workers experience high rates of bullying and harassment
Monday, November 7th, 2022Disabled workers are disproportionately affected by bullying and harassment in the workplace, according to research by the Human Rights Commission. The research published in Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand showed 61% of disabled workers had been racially harassed in the previous five years, compared to 37% of non-disabled workers. Nearly Read more
El Salvador’s Catholic bishops make safe drinking water a pastoral issue
Monday, December 6th, 2021
El Salvador’s freshwater supplies are so endangered the Catholic bishops have adopted it as a pastoral issue. It’s one they want urgent help with from both the government and the international community. To put it bluntly, the vast majority (70 percent) of El Salvador’s 590 rivers are swamped with giant amounts of human poo and Read more
New report details detention and torture of North Korean Christians
Monday, November 8th, 2021
A new report based on interviews with North Korean defectors details two decades’ detention and torture of North Korean Christians. Some of the human rights violations occurred as recently as 2019. The report and accompanying database, documents 167 serious human rights violations perpetrated against 91 Christians. The report’s eyewitness interviews are current: human rights NGO Read more
Race Commissioner keen on tougher hate speech law
Thursday, July 1st, 2021Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon says the proposed hate speech law will be a welcome addition to the human rights toolkit. He says the current law covers race and ethnicity, but is silent on disability, religious beliefs or sexual gender or orientation. About half the complaints to the Human Rights Commission are about racial discrimination, Read more
UN experts pressure Church to surrender to abortion and gender ideology
Thursday, June 24th, 2021
A statement from “UN experts” aims to force the Holy See and the Catholic Church to surrender to abortion and gender ideology. It is likely to be published during the UN Human Rights Council’s current session. The UN experts’ statement will probably be made under the guise of demands that the Vatican takes all necessary steps Read more